Stolen
by minerchick9087
Summary: Raph, Donnie and Mikey have lived their lives oblivious to the fact that they had both an elder brother and sister, who where taken by the shredder at a young age, However when Raph finally meets Leo will feelings that shouldnt be make themselves known and will Leo and Karai ever know the truth. (leoxraph)
1. Chapter 1

Hamato Yoshi dashed through the sewers, shredder and his army of foot following him not too far behind, making a sharp left at a fork in the tunnels he unfortunately misplaced his footing, slipping and landing in strange goop that had an unhealthy green glow to it. Hearing shredder and his men not far behind Yoshi quickly divided into a small crevasse in the wall, he stayed silent as about a dozen foot passed by, the sound of shredder's armor drew ever closer, Yoshi held his breath as the armored man stopped at the opening of the crack he was hiding in, however the man simply knelt down slowly standing back up holding a turtle, much larger than it should be, almost looking like a baby boy with a shell, shredder looked at the creature suspiciously before finally electing to take it with him.

Once completely out of sight, Yoshi emerged from the crack, admittedly he felt more than a little off, slightly ill even, pushing it aside as just nerves he looked at the place shredder had taken the turtle from, it looked as though nothing else was there just a pile of discarded twigs and muck, but then the muck did something it shouldn't, it moved, baffled by the event yoshi drew closer, investigating the pile, it moved again, quickly scooping away the dirt, as he did so his eyes widened in shock, beneath the pile lay three more of the creatures, each looking innocent and defenseless,

"you poor things" he gasped, shooing away the rats that had gathered and collecting the three goop covered youngsters in his arms. Yoshi scowled at the thought that shredder has just taken the brother of these three,

"come I will look after you" he whispered carrying the three off to a safer place.

After a while of walking aimlessly through the sewage, he eventually found what looked to be an abandoned subway station, not ideal but it would do, creating a makeshift bed, hamato yoshi fell into an uneasy slumber. When he woke, Yoshi felt, particulier, his face felt longer and his whole body harrier, he eased open his eyes and glanced down at his arms, he gasped, this couldn't be right, his arms were covered in fur, as was the rest of his body, he realized he had a long snout, tail and even large ears, physically he looked like a giant rat,

'it must be a bad dream' he thought to himself, this couldn't be happening, he tried nipping his arm, nothing. Yoshi quickly scanned the surroundings, the three turtles lay where he had left them, yet they had grown significantly in size, now looking more like tots, even having distinct features, one was lanky all balled up as small as he could make himself, his mouth slightly open to reveal a small gap in his teeth, next to him lay a smaller turtle, his body infected with freckles, leaving one last boy, his body much bulkier in size, his face scrunched up in a form of scowl. After much deliberation and self questioning, Yoshi came to two conclusions, one: this was no dream, two: he would have to take it upon himself to care for these youngsters, and hopefully someday find their brother, if he still lived.

Years slowly passed and the three tots soon grew to be children, for some reason they had adapted to calling Yoshi Splinter not long after they started talking, for reasons Yoshi just couldn't grasp, though he had a hunch it had something to do with the comic that they read incessantly. Also much to his dismay, splinter had managed to confuse the boys on many occasion, often mistaking one for the other, to solve this problem he decided to baptize them with some coloured rags from around the station and name the boys at last, he also thought it would be a good idea to rename the boys after his wife's favorite artists in her memory. Approaching the three who sat cheerfully in a circle playing some bored game,

"boys" he interrupted, gaining their attention,

"yes splinter" they replied almost in unison

"I have a gift for you" he spoke and watched as their eyes lit up with curiosity and they waited patiently for him to continue

"for you, Michelangelo, an orange mask, to show playfulness, and joy" he handed his youngest son the orange rag, as the boy jumped with joy,

"yea im mich-an-lo" he tried pronouncing the name unfortunately failing, splinter chuckled as he moved on

"for you Donatello, a purple mask, to show intelligence and creativity" Splinter handed his second youngest turtle the cloth

"Thank you splinter" he replied humbly

"and finally Raphael, a red mask to show courage and strength" handing his eldest the last cloth piece

"thanks" Raphael huffed taking the red fabric and tying it around his eyes

Now the three where easily distinguishable and had names to be called by, on occasion Splinter would go and look for the lost son, however his efforts were in vain, constantly coming back empty handed, this didn't stop him from caring for the boys he had, when they were eight he decided it was a good time to start teaching them the ways of the ninja and ninjitsu, out of fear his enemy would return. Much time passed and the young turtles where now teens, each bearing their own colourful personality, Michelangelo, always so energetic unfortunately never putting any of that energy into his training, Donatello, tended to engrose himself in his experiments and projects often locked away in his lab overthinking every little detail, and Raphael, rebellious and hot headed, he often struggled to control his anger, yet when his brothers needed him he would put everything aside to help, which is why he is leader of the trio.

Splinter sat, meditating in the dojo when a large crash sounded from the other room followed by many loud screams, sighing the old rat stood and went to see what all the commotion was about. He slid open the dojo doors and saw a large dogpile of turtles, Raph had Mikey in a headlock and Donnie was furiously trying to free his brother,

"what is going on here" splinter demanded, cracking his cane of the floor grabbing the attention of the three

"Mikey broke the arcade machine...again" Raph growled pointing to the device that had a skateboard sticking from it and sparks flying around the place

"I said I can fix it, just let Mikey go" Donnie complained tugging at his older siblings arm

"Raphael release Michelangelo" Splinter ordered as Raphs frown deepened

"are you kidden me!" he cried throwing Mikey to the ground and stomping over to Splinter, ignoring the pained cries behind him, "you'll not say nothin ta the swine who broke da dam game, but you'll quite happily start on me" Raph protested standing toe to toe with his sensei

"Michelangelo will get his own punishment" splinter said calmly, the two other brothers had wisely evacuated the room,

"no he wont, he never does" the red clad turtle yelled in frustration, throwing his arms up as he started to pace back and forth in front of Splinter, ranting on about how the treatment wasn't fair, "...It's just a load of bull shit" he finished only to have a wooden staff smash against his plastron causing him to keel over in pain,

"go to your room" the rat scolded as Raph lay hugging his stomach on the floor

"a-are you kidden me" he groaned as he pulled himself up

"NOW!"

* * *

Shredder held a disapproving stare, his son knelt before him requesting permission to leave on his own, until now he had never asked to leave, all missions and patrols had been left to his sister, who had insisted she was good enough and though Leonardo was just as good as Karai, Shredder was still reluctant to let him leave,

"please father, I can handle myself, you know I can, Karai has gone out many times, why can't I" the young turtle complained, looking up longingly at his father who sighed in defeat

"very well, but I want you back here by sunrise" he ordered, Leo's face immediately splitting into a smile, he quickly regained his composure

"thank you father" he said as calmly as possible, bowing and almost sprinting from the room.

He had been out less than one hour and already Leo was loving New York, the quiet night streets and endless stretch of rooftops, the best part however where the people he could beat up, during his time out Leo had came across many purple dragons, they had fallen out with the foot clan because they owed Shredder money, which Karai had gotten back. However for the most part he jumped from roof to roof, simply enjoying the freedom, until he heard a rather high pitched scream, Leo stopped, curiosity overpowering him as he decided to head towards it, with nothing better to do, hopefully it was something interesting.

* * *

Raph paced his room for what must have been the thousandth time, 'unbelievable' he thought to himself, kicking the nearby can, it must have been hours and Raph was going stir crazy, eroding a trench into the ground from hours of walking back and forth

"that's it" he groaned, stomping up to the door, the muffled sound of Mikey's show, Don would be in his lab so he wasn't a problem but passing splinter that would be a troublesome.

Slowly easing open the door, the flickering light of the TV danced on the floor before him, peering through the ajar door, Mikey sat, mesmerized but the moving images, slipping through the crack, Raph slowly creeping along the wall, the loud explosions on the TV masking all Sound he made, rolling past Donnie's lab door and leaping over the turn style, dashing down the subway tunnel and up to the surface world.

Hopping over the rooftops he ran from what must have been an armada of foot soldiers, quickly stopping Raph turned to face his attackers, they had been harassing a young lady who had been... Surprised to see Raph to say the least, by surprised he ment screaming her lungs out and killing Raph's ear's. He hadn't ran too far, just a few rooftop's, the soldiers had him surrounded

"you guys are just what I was looken for" he snarled spinning his Sai in his hands as the many foot headed toward him. The fight lasted less than twenty minutes, the soldiers practically sacrificing themselves to Raph's fury, he now stood alone, surrounded by unmoving bodies, panting his own breath visible in the cold night air.

"not bad, for a rookie" a voice sounded behind him, Raph spun quickly to face the source, but was only met with shadow's

"who's there, show ya self" he demanded, glaring at the inky blackness, only able to make out the outline of a person standing about ten feet away.

"give me one good reason to" the figure replied, Raph didn't need to see his face to know he had a smirk on his face only making him more angry.

"hows about you just show me your ugly face so I can punch it" Raph growled, not at all in the mood to be playing games with some nobody,

"oh, I do like a challenge" the figure said, calmly emerging from the shadows,

Raph's eyes widened in shock, the person that stood before him was a turtle, just like him, slightly taller though, he wore black fighting tape from his ankles to his thighs and his wrists to his bicep, red tape attached shiny metal plates to his calf's, knees, forearm elbows and the top Half of his plastron, he had a small black belt with crimson pouches and a small sword attached, he wore a black bandana and two katanas hung on the back of his shell, finally engraved onto each shoulder plate was the foot symbol, of course this guy was foot scum, oh well just someone else for Raph to pound on.

The other turtle drew his katana, standing in a fighting stance waiting for Raph to make the first move, Raph adjusted his grip on his sai, charging at the soldier, he didnt move until Raph got close, he simply jumped out of the way, as Raph spun back round his sai was caught in the soldiers katana and flung across the roof, he held up his other sai just in time to block an attack, this guy was fast but Raph was stronger, pushing back the soldier, he tried to land an uppercut only succeeding in punching air and getting a fist in his gut, nearly the same spot splinter had hit, before he knew it Raph was on his shell with a heavy foot on his plastron and a sword at his throat,

"and here I thought you would be a challenge" the turtle sighed, sounding almost depressed, his face looking disappointed

"excuse me, I can beat ya to a pulp if you'd like" Raph growled trying to get up only to have the blade dig into his throat and the foot press down harder

"I think your forgetting your position here, Raphael" he spat Raph's name like a curse, glaring down at the enraged creature beneath his feet, Raph's face scrunched in confusion

"h-how do you know my name" he demanded, slowly stretching his arm to attempt to reach the discarded sai the lay inches away,

"my sister has told me many stories about you and your brothers" he simply stated, not easing the confused look on Raph's face, his katana still biting at the skin, allowing a small trail of red to slide down Raph's neck,

"don't tell me you mean that witch, Karai" at the mention of her, Raph received a firm punch in the face and a sharp pain in his arm causing him to cry out, looking the soldier had cut his arm, quite deeply and the sai kicked further away, well out of reach,

"don't you dare speak about her like that" the now furious soldier was centimeters from Raph's face

"well so-rry Mr sunshine" Raph muttered looking to the ground next to his face as the weight from his front was lifted, looking up the turtle was nowhere to be seen,

"hey sunny D, you could of at least told me ya name" he called out to what he assumed was nothing, yet he heard a voice, a few buildings over that didnt sound too happy

"Leonardo!" Raph smirked

"well 'Leonardo' next time you won't get lucky" he laughed, pronouncing the name in a mocking girly tone, collecting his sai from the roof before dashing home.

* * *

He got back to the station with one arm almost completely soaked in blood , the cut stung like hell, small trails of red had dried on his neck from the small scrape left there from the katana, he entered the main room and saw everyone waiting for him, someone must have found out he was gone and called April and Casey to help find him,

"oh my god, Raph what happened" April sqeeled covering her mouth with her hands

"just this foot guy" he tried to sound casual about the situation despite the growing pain in his arm

"dam bro, you let one guy do this to you, guess you're losing your touch" Mikey teased smirking at his older brother who glared back

"Raphael, you were supposed to be grounded" Splinters voice came from behind making Raph jump slightly,

"I know sensei but please listen, this guy he was like us, a turtle" Raph exclaimed as faces around the room looked at him like he was crazy,

"you're joking, you have to be" Donnie said almost in disbelief, as he fixed up Raphs arm

"Don how often do I joke" Raph looked seriously at Donnie who couldn't quite come up with words and just silently agreed, splinter however looked most surprised,

"d-do you know anything about him" it was rare their sensei stuttered, Raph had no idea what had him so surprised,

"uh he said he was karai's brother and his names Leonardo"

"wait, if Karai has a bro why is he a turtle and she ain't" Casey asked from way back at the couch, the question left everyone puzzled, except splinter who walked off to the dojo without saying a word, bearing a furious look on his face

"what's wrong master splinter" April asked worried, she got no reply as the dojo panels slammed shut, leaving everyone to talk amongst themselves about the situation.

* * *

"so, oroku saki, not only have you stolen my daughter, but also my son's, brother, I swear I will make you pay, even if it is with my last breath" splinter cursed quietly glaring at an old picture of his family whilst listening to the happy laughs of his new one in the room next door, this wasn't over.


	2. Chapter 2

It was late and the turtles had already been on patrol, so now they where lazing around the lair, doing nothing, giving raph time to think that he didn't need. He was laying in bed just staring at the ceiling, replaying the encounter from the previous night, his thoughts had started angry as he remembered how arrogant that leonardo had been, he wasn't that good, but the longer raph thought the more confused he became, why was leonardo a turtle shouldn't he be human like karai, they where siblings after all and why was splinter so curious about him...was it because he was a turtle or was there something else, this was only the tip of the ice berg of all the questions he had spinning in his head. Maybe he would go out again, see if he could run into leonardo again and get some answers, its a long shot but it may be worth a go, raph hopped out of bed and walked calmly into the living room and over to the turn style

"And where might you be going?" Donnie asked from out of nowhere making raph jump slightly

"Out" he shrugged trying to be vague so Donnie wouldn't worry

"You're gonna try and find that Leonardo dude aren't you" mikey hinted from behind the couch, his eyes only just peeking over the edge

"So what if I am" raph asked trying to keep his cool

"The so what is last time you lost quite a bit of blood" Donnie stated pointing to the wound on raph arm

"All were saying bro is that if you go, we go" mikey hinted. Raph sighed

"Fine, come on" he signalled as the three left the lair

* * *

In shredders lair many foot soldiers where preparing to go out, they had a shipment coming in late due to unforeseen issues, Karai however was sprinting as fast as she could down the hall's up the stairs before skidding to a halt at her brothers door, slightly out of breath, and knocking furiously before the door swung open.

"Can I help you" a rather bored Leo opened the door to the exasperated karai

"Get dressed, I convinced father to let you come with us" she gasped as Leos face suddenly dawned a smile

"Seriously" he grinned, karai nodding furiously beaming at him

A moment of the two just standing smiling at each other passed before karai dashed off again and leo slammed his door and speedily got dressed, running from his room moments later fully equipped and ready to go.

* * *

"well we have successfully wasted one hour of our lives, now what" Donnie sighed at raph who still stood hopefully at the edge of the building

"Is there anywhere we haven't checked" he asked, spinning around facing his brothers in slight desperation

"Raph don't be alarmed but I think you're obsessing" Donnie de-panned

"I'm not obsessing, I just want some answers" raph argued

"Yo donnie, do crate ships come in this late" mikey asked out of the blue, drawing attention to him

"No...Why" he asked slowly walking over to his younger brother, raph just behind

"One coming in right now" he pointed to the large ship docking, only just visible from their position

"You want to check it out raph" the two younger brothers looked at their leader

"Let's go"

You didn't have to be an expert to know leo an karai weren't taking this seriously, they where constantly snickering and messing with the other foot, the mission was meant to be easy hence the duos goofy attitude, the where so eloped in their own humour they failed to notice the three figures drop down on the containers behind them.

"Well they look like there having a blast" raph grumbled

"She can laugh" mikey gasped gaining a not very amused glare from Donnie, probably raph too if he wasn't so focused on the group in front

"Remember when we mixed cat-nip in with tigerclaws milk" karai gasped as Leo chuckled

"And he was stuck on the ceiling for like an hour" he finished between gasps before they both doubled over in a fit of laughter

"Id pay to see that" Donnie snickered

The large white and red ship finally docked and a swarm of bulky Russian men marched towards the foot group, they where dressed in thick, black, leather coats and baggy, green, cameo pants with shining, black boots that went to there knees, the man who looked to be in charge had a brown, furry pilot hat on.

"Ve have brought the bio-chemicals, now, do you have the payment" the beefy man demanded in a thick Russian accent, karai nodded to one of her soldiers who brought forth a case

"four canisters of mutagen, not sure why you would want this but here" she opened the case to assure the goods where there before slamming the lid and passing it over, more men exited the ship carrying a large crate,

"I've seen enough" raph growled as he jumped from the canister landing behind some foot and taking them out with his sai drawing the attention of every other person in the dock as the limp bodies of the soldiers hit the floor, Donnie and mikey landing behind raph in battle ready positions.

"You again, are these guys always this persistent" Leo moaned grabbing his katanas

"Unfortunately" karai sighed copying Leo's action and grabbing her blade from its holster, the Russian men had retreated back onto the ship which was now leaving the dock.

"You're happy to see us really" mikey teased, a playful grin on his face as he spun his nunchucks

"yea I'm doing summersaults on the inside" karai rolled her eyes as she played along sarcastically before yelling at the foot soldiers 'attack' sending a barrage of foot at the three turtles who punched, kicked and stabbed their way through the swarm, all that could be made out was the blurs of green and the slight shimmer of weapons slicing through the air. Karai and Leo had jumped in halfway through and where putting up a very good fight, raph however wasn't satisfied, he started getting attacking Leo more, slowly leading him away from the big fight, admittedly not his best plan but at this point he was just going with what was happening. Eventually they where at a dead end, surrounded by red and blue crates, far from the battle area.

"You're easy to lure, you know that" raph taunted, slightly out of breath

"Is it really luring if you know you're being lured"

"Don't get philosophical on me I want answers" raph demanded pointing his sai at the other turtle

"And what makes you think I will give you any, I could just take you out" leo toyed on the idea, spinning his katana in his hand "what would I get from it" raph pondered his question

"how's about we do an eye for an eye, I ask a question, then you get to ask one" raph suggested, hopefully there was something this guy wanted to know, the look on his face struck hope into raph, he was considering,

"Fine, shoot" Leo snapped quickly

"Why are you like us and not karai" raph didn't know how many questions he would get so he thought it best to get the big ones out the way first

"An accident when I was young caused me to become this, the same accident cost me my mothers life" the black clad turtle answered far too casually to be normal in a way that raph wasn't quite prepared for

"Why do you hate shredder" Leo quickly changed the subject before raph could say anything, he was quick firing and raph wasn't exactly ecstatic about the brushed off answer and not caring attitude

"That monster destroyed my sensei's life; I'm just getting him back. He's also an asshole, don't know if you noticed" this summoned a disapproving tut from Leo much to raph joy

"Why you only popped up recently and karai's been around for nearly a year" raph asked getting back on track

"Father only recently allowed me to leave"

"Aw has the little baby gotta have daddy's permission" raph teased

"He worry's he'll lose more family" Leo argued

"Yet he lets karai go out, doesn't seem fair" raph continued to push all the buttons of his enemy

"Why are you doing the bidding of a stinking old rat" Leonardo taunted

"What did you say!" raph screamed probably alerting everyone of their location

"You herd me" the simple question game was quickly escalating into an argument, the two where head to head practically growling at each other. Raph stared into the sapphire blue eyes in front of him, he hadn't realised until now just how much they contrasted the rest of the turtles attire, practically glowing in the dim light. The blue orbs shot to look behind before dashing back to look at raph.

"maybe next time" he spat cynically then running off leaving raph to stare at the space he once stood wondering why he didn't attack the foot turtle he had the perfect opportunity and the motivation why didn't he just end that foots miserable life right then, was it those eyes, those blue eyes, now he knew he was going insane

"Stupid leonardo, cocky, blue eyed, creep" raph grumbled as he stormed back to his brothers, who where in pretty good condition considering they went up against karai and quite a lot of foot with out him

"Where the hell where you" Donnie screamed, looking furiously at his brother who had abandoned them earlier

"yea dude, you missed all the fun, you should have seen us against karai, she was like jumping and kicking but me and donnie-boy we where just like 'wocha' and 'pow'" mikey explained enthusiastically making an array of wild actions and sounds, donnie had given up trying to get him to stop and was now just standing rubbing his temples

"Lets just go home" raph suggested, Donnie nodding in agreement, the two walked off leaving mikey to his story

"Hey, guys, not cool, wait up" he called jogging to catch up with his brothers.


	3. Chapter 3

He didn't know why he did it but Raph was feeling crazy, he had left the lair without anyone in search of leonardo, and somehow he had found him, the rain was pouring, drenching the floor in an ever growing sheet of water that reflected the street lights in a blurry mess. The heavy water pounded off of Raphs skin, giving it a light sheen, he stood opposite his latest rival, leonardo who was equally drenched, the roof was suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning that crackled through the sky.

"well Raph, its been fun" leo chuckled twirling his sword and smirking at the other turtle

"you're going down" Raph threatened,

the two where battle ready, staring each other down until raphs impatience got the better of him as he charged towards the opposite end of the roof, he slashed at Leonardo who hadn't moved an inch until moments before the sai hit when he decided to weave out of the way, raph only growled at the miss before trying again and again slashing at the evasive ninja who seemed to elegantly duck and dodge away from the onslaught of futile attacks. As raph continued to helplessly attack what may as well have been air, Leonardo was effortlessly dodging making it look like an art form, beautifully and gracefully sliding, skidding and rolling away from the blade while raph looked like exhausted mess covered in rain, in one last vain attempt raph chucked one sai at a time at Leos face, while he was distracted with them raph finally managed a solid hit on Leos face, making him stumble backwards, Raph went in for another hit but as he drew close his target seemed to disappear below him, unfortunately causing him to hit the wall behind. Apparently at this point Leo had gotten bored, raph felt a hand grab the back of his head before it slammed his face into the wall he had just punched then throwing him gritty rooftop, at this point raphs vision was blurry and his limbs where heavy, getting up seemed impossible, his chest however seemed heavier, it took longer than it should have to realise that there was a foot on it. His vision cleared slightly and Raph's breath hitched as he saw just how close the ninjas face was from his, their lips mere centimetres apart, Leos eyes lidded slightly, half covering his bright, blue eyes that pierced the dank, rainy surroundings. Raph's heart was pounding, he didn't know why, he couldn't feel and swords against his skin, there was no immediate danger just the thought that a few centimetres closer and there lips would be touching and raph didn't know how to feel about that thought,

"maybe next time" the words where whispered so quietly they where barely audible over the splashing of the rain, suddenly the weight was gone and raph was alone, feeling slightly disappointed, another flash of lightning bolted raph awake, he glanced around his room quickly before flopping back onto the bed

"just a dream" he sighed, slightly confused, why was he dreaming about the enemy like this, why was he depressed when Leonardo left, raph had never hated a foot soldier more than this one

"stupid blue eyes" he grumbled turning on his side attempting to get back to sleep.

The rest of the night had been fairly normal, no more weird dreams, mikey up later than he should have been and Donnie in his lab, normal. When morning dawned raph wisely decided to keep his dream from his family, probably better if they didn't know what he apparently thought about the foot turtle.

"mornin bro" mikey greeted happily, laying down food on the counter, raph however wasn't that hungry

"geeze raph you look like me when I pull an all nighter, not get much sleep?" while it was true that raph didn't get much sleep after that dream, he didn't think he looked that bad

"just an uneasy night" was all he could come up with, his brothers took the bait and they settled into breakfast .

* * *

Leo was walking down to the dojo, in his fathers words, 'you can always be better' now seemed like an appropriate time to improve, leo wouldn't risk falling to Raphael, when he got there however he was faced with karai, who was finishing off her kata.

"wanna spar" she asked never even looking to the doorway

"if you're up for it" karai stopped her kata and picked up two wooden swords, throwing one to leo they stood at opposite ends of the tatami mat, Leo was never one for making the first move, he always let his enemy come to him, with karai however this wasn't a wise choice, he learned this early on when they both got the hang of sword fighting for the first time and she clobbered him. He readied himself then suddenly charged at karai who dodged swiftly out the way, eventually the two where at each others throats, the wooden blades smacking off each other rhythmically.

"so, where did you run off to the other night, you know when you left me with two of the hamato brats" karai started in a not very amused tone

"I was with the other one" leo answered smacking away the other katana

"you should have stayed with me, we would have stood a better chance" karai said as she skidded to a halt

"I wanted to ask him a question" this made karai stop momentarily

"are you kidding me, you do know they are the enemy" she asked as if her brother had gone insane

"I was going to take him out" leo tried to defend himself

"well its because of you we lost the shipment and angered father" karai blamed, bringing the wooden katana round hard and fast, leo barely brining up his in time to block her attack

"you cant expect me to meet a turtle like me and not want to ask some questions" he strained, kicking his sister away

"but in the middle of a mission leo" she dashed back at him

"I know, and I'm sorry, next time I see him ill take him out" he declared determinately, sliding to the side and tripping up karai

"just don't leave me like that again" she said sympathetically, accepting the outstretched hand and getting up before the two readied and started again.

"in fact if you want to take him out, a reliable source has told me there's a kraang experiment going on tonight, I guarantee the turtles will be there" she suggested mid battle, leo didn't answer, but the grin on his face said it all.

* * *

The lair was quiet, it usually was during the day unless mikey was doing something stupid, but today April had come down and brought some new games for mikey so he was occupied on the xbox which made donnie happy because then he wouldn't have to fend off the curious turtle and it made raph happy because of how peaceful the place was,

"so raph..." April started, perching herself on the arm of the couch, raph only peered over the top of his comic and raised an eyebrow (or mask...what ever you would call it)

"I was wondering since I'm, you know, nearly a kunoichi, if I could maybe come on patrol with you guys tonight" she gave raph a sweet look, like the kind mikey gives if he wants something

"I don't know April, its not exactly safe, what with the foot and the kraang" raph listed putting down the comic

"come on raph April can take care of herself, besides its not like well get into anything too bad and donnie would love you for it" mikey butted in from his seat 3 feet from the tv

"why would donnie be happy" April asked, her eyes darting between the two brothers

"not important, but I guess mikey has a point, so fine you can join us on patrol" April dived onto raph squealing happily

"thank you, you wont even know I'm there ill be so stealthy" she chuckled hopping off raph and practically danced to the kitchen to continue the noodles humming all the while.

The rest of the day dragged slowly on everyone doing there respective tasks, there hadn't been a day this quiet in a long while so they where socking up every minute, alas night fell upon the city and the time for patrol came,

"everyone ready" raph asked spinning round to the rest of the group, who each nodded in confirmation, the four left the lair and entered the battlefield of new York.

They jumped from roof to roof, April barely keeping up, yet as mikey had said the night seemed quiet, so far they hadn't run into any trouble, until that is they entered the warehouse district. They where passing through keeping alert, usually there some purple dragons around here, yet they where stopped in there tracks when they came to the end of the estate, one of the abandoned buildings had lights on, usually that wouldn't trigger any alarms but when the lights are purple it tends to draw attention. The team where perched on the outside balcony peering in through the window

"kraang" donnie cursed looking at the elaborate setup, a large tank of mutagen sat in the middle of the room with dozens of pipes leading to large canisters that held people, luckily they where unconscious but that wasn't the point

"what are they up to this time" April asked slightly out of breath

"I don't know, but Id place my bets on it not being something good, come on" raph carefully opened the window and crept into the building

"alright, mikey you take the guys near the back, donnie you break the machine and April I'm counting on you to have my back" he gave the orders and they all got into position before leaping down crushing a few kraang in the process, they slowly started taking out the metal aliens, mikey was jumping around the place like a frog smashing into countless kraang and on occasion grabbing one with his nunchucks and smashing it against a few others, donnie was busy hacking into the machine periodically looking up and knocking out a few bots, it was coming down to the last few and raph was pulling a severed robot head from his sai, oblivious to the kraang bot behind him gun at the ready, right as it was about to fire it fell to the floor, about 10 shuriken protruding from its body, the kraang screeched before slinking away as raph turned round,

"gee thanks April" he said quite shocked, yet when he looked up from the empty kraang body aprl was over beside donnie and mikey who where all looking over

"I didn't do that" she replied slowly

"of course she didn't, I did" a low voice chuckled from the corner of the room, all eyes darted in its direction

"you" raph spat glaring at leonardo with hate, or as much hate as he could muster, in reality raph was kind of happy to see leo in a sense that he was starting to enjoy fighting him even though they had only fought twice

"you welcome, god" leo said in a mockingly insulted tone, as he walked over.

"dude you look so much like us its creepy" mikey exclaimed in aw, not really getting a good look at him the other night,

"the fact that you think I look pathetic and incompetent is quite insulting" he jeered before he was pushed to the floor a sai at his throat

"why are you here" raph asked in a warning tone his knee pressed heavily on leos plastron

"oh the tables have turned" leo joked, he wasn't taking any of this seriously

"answer the question" raph pushed the sai harder against the throat beneath it

"why to see you of course, you're quite the entertainment you know" leo said lifting his head up allowing the sai to cut in showing he was only toying with raph, allowing him to think he was in control

"why did you save raph" April called over

"oh well that's not fair what happened to my go" leo pouted

"this isn't a game" raph snarled, leo only sighed, putting on a more serious tone

"because girly, Raphael here is mine to take out, I'm not going to let some alien ruin my fun" he said glaring at the metal corps then quickly darting his eyes back up to raph and grinning, he clasped both legs around raph and spun them over making raph land on his shell with a thud the small dagger from leos belt against his neck, and that smug grin was back.

However as soon as it came it was gone, mikey had tackled him an sent them flying across the room, they both scrambled to there feet mikey immediately pulling out his nunchucks and charging at the other ninja who didn't move, he only stood looking a little more than pissed off

"mikey no" but it was too late, mikey launched one nunchuck at leo who moved his head quickly to the left then wrapping the passing chain around his arm and pulling hardly making mikey go flying towards him and smashing off the concrete skidding to a halt a leos feet, donnie and April stepped in and charged towards the enemy, weapons at the ready while raph gathered himself from the floor. Leo dropped the chain stepping over the disorientated turtle, donnie swung first but leo easily ducked under however failed to notice the staff coming back round sweeping his legs off the floor however leo was able to catch himself and flip back up and duck round to elbow donnies side then grab his bo staff and whack him across the head then turning around in time to see a rather angry red head charging his way and raph charging from the right, April slashed her teesen alarmingly close to leos face, thinking quick he grabbed her arm and pulled her down while bringing his knee up landing a hard hit in her gut, knocking the breath out of her then dragging her round and chucking her into raph causing them to both fall to the ground.

Suddenly a loud alarm sounded glancing around donnie had made his way to the controls and had set something off, fearing the worst leo bailed jumping through the window on the ground floor,

"donnie what did you do" raph called over the alarm

"I triggered the security defence, the cops should be here soon to free the people" donnie yelled back still hunched over the controls

"what about the mutagen" April called yet as she asked the question the mutagen canister sunk into the floor and donnie dashed over to April, mikey and raph

"they wont even know about it" he said as the escorted mikey out the building and onto the roof as the police sirens approached.

The gang where spaced around the roof, recuperating from their embarrassing defeat, mikey was sprawled on the roof like a starfish donnie was with April making sure she wasn't too hurt and raph was slouched over the edge scanning the many, many rooftops, then his eye caught something, something he wouldn't have seen had he not been looking for it, a few roofs away there was the dark but distinct figure that resembled a turtle

"gotcha" he whispered to himself, he glanced over his shoulder making sure no one would notice if he slipped away, once he was clear he hopped down to the neighbouring roof, and quietly dashing away.

Leo limped awkwardly back home, karai had messaged him asking how it went to which he replied 'terribly, one against four isn't a fair fight' she hadn't questioned him or criticized him, probably waiting until he got back. He continued to limp across rooftops until he heard something, quickly spinning around leo came face to face with nothing but empty space, he scanned the roof but couldn't see anything, marking it down as imagination he turned back around to continue home but suddenly found himself pinned against the wall of the emergency staircase by non other than Raphael, both of his hands pressed firmly on the wall and despite best efforts to free himself, raph was undoubtedly stronger than him

"ya done squirming" he asked blankly, receiving a reluctant nod

"good, now ya gonna tell me what that was about" he asked motioning his head in the direction of the warehouse

"what beating your family" leo chuckled

"no, you never used you're own weapon once, you could have easily taken us out" raph explained

"if I did that what would I do for fun" leo replied simply, raph stared for a moment

"you're not nearly as bad as karai, you know that" he finally said

"don't involve her" leo warned

"why do you care so much, its not like I'm stabben her" raph asked not in a harsh way but more of a caring way

"I love her as much as a brother can, she's the best family I have left, I mean father isn't exactly fatherly, but if anything happened to her id blame myself" for the first time raph heard a genuine emotion in leos voice

"huh, you're really not a bad guy are ya" he said quietly

"you just don't know me yet" leo joked, that cocky look was back, the sly grin and half open eyes, raph stood and gazed into the sea blue orbs, and he didn't know what came over him his mind seemed to go blank but before he could stop himself he smashed his lips against the other turtles, the strange sensation of soft lips against his was mesmerising and tasted rather sweet, like candy, leo had stopped squirming accepting that his hands weren't getting free unless released forcing him to acknowledge the fact that he was being kissed, surprisingly it wasn't that bad, in fact it was quite comforting, he let his eyes close as he elected to kiss back, the two now absorbed in a kiss that seemed to last hours, each of the two enjoying more than they probably should, eventually they broke apart to the sound of three voices calling

"raph" the shouts sounded close and both raph and leo knew that if they where found like this it wouldn't end well, so without a word raph sprinted off in the direction of the voices leaving leo standing alone on a rooftop, he started to chuckle softly, Raphael was turning to be more fun than he bargained for

"oh what have I gotten myself into" he continued to chuckle hysterically as he went back to limping home

* * *

"Raph there you are, where did you go" April asked panicked

"just for a walk, honestly guys you worry too much" the lie rolled smoothly off his tongue and no-one questioned him further, but the whole way home he keep licking his lips, that sweet taste was still there reminding him of the terrible, terrible thing he had just done, he was in deep and getting deeper, what had he done.


	4. Chapter 4

Raph stared blankly at the TV, the flashing cartoon images racing across the screen making loud energetic sounds, yet raph paid it no mind, not watching the TV just looking at it, his mind was elsewhere, like it had been a lot lately but today, no matter how hard he tried his brain kept taking him back to the kiss, the biggest screw up he could have made, it was driving him crazy, the fact that he had done it, the fact that leo actually kissed back, but the worst part was the fact that the more he thought about it, the more he started to enjoy thinking about it and began taking into account smaller details that he had taken for granted like the distinct smell of mint mixed with leather or how it seemed like new York city had stopped suddenly, no breeze or sounds disrupting the moment yet he couldn't get over how sweet the kiss had tasted, like honey or a sweet bun. However every time he brought his head back to reality he would try hopelessly to convince himself that he hated it and leonardo and was glad that he and his brothers weren't going on patrol tonight though he knew he was just lying to himself, the situation wasn't made any easier by the fact that raph was rather furious that some irritating, arrogant, over confident foot loser had made him feel like this.

"You know dude, you could just change the channel if you don't like what's on, no need to glare at the TV" mikey jumped onto the couch beside raph bringing him out of his trance, he hadn't realised he had been frowning never mind at the TV

"Oh, right, yea" was all he managed proceeding to watch what ever show mikey had put on

"I hear there's this wicked new movie out about these video game characters that start running wild in the real world" mikey burst out with a huge smile on his face

"sounds good but we cant see it till its on disk numpty, not like we can just walk into the cinema and get some tickets" raph pointed out

"just sayen" mikey had left the couch and was slowly scooting closer to the TV, raph just sighed and started for his room, until he seen the time, it was seven so it would be getting dark out, surely no one would mind if he went of for a run, what was he doing considering sneaking out again just to try and see him, a guy who he couldn't tell if he hated or loved, he prayed for the prior as he dashed quietly down the tunnel to the surface.

leo, like raph, had his mind occupied by last nights event, he should be using it to his advantage to pull the towel from under him and end him and his brothers, make father proud, yet he couldn't seem to bring himself to execute the idea, after all its not Raph's fault his mothers dead, nether the less, until this blew over leo could only pray shredder didn't find out that he had been out smooching the enemy, karai on the other hand had had a grand time mocking him about his failure at the kraang place, now however she had left with shredder to assure stockman's supplies got here alright, leaving leo alone and rather bored in the church with three options, stay and mess with the morons here, practice at Mario cart so he could beat karai or go out and try and find a hot head to mess with, at first he chose to mess with the new foot recruits until slowly half an hour passed and he noticed just how dull it was here without karai to talk to, thus choosing to leave in search of entertainment.

He had scoured the entire city, checking the docks and all purple dragon hot spots, but the turtle raph was looking for was nowhere, so he quit searching and was now pathetically swaying on a swing in a small park, his feet dragging on the ground,

"Our meet ups are starting to get very predictable" a voice sounded close behind him and raph didn't need to turn around to know who it was

"Are you following me" raph asked starting to think there meet ups where more than coincidence

"No, but I was looking for you if that means anything" Leo said hopping over the small fence and sitting on the swing next to raph

"well now you're here I'm tellin you that what happened last night was nothing" raph blurted emphasizing the nothing making sure he got the message across

"Meh" was all he got

"MEH!" he yelled standing up from the swing "all your given me is meh, no insults, no button pushing, just meh" he cried angrily as he expected more

"I could but there's no point really, you know you're the only fun I've had in years" he said randomly somewhat avoiding Raph's topic

"I don't care just give me a reason to hate you!" he half yelled half pleaded

"But if you're brining it up... it wasn't that bad" Leo shrugged quietly ignoring Raph's demand

"What are you talking about" raph asked in a quieter tone

"The kiss you muppet" Leo looked at raph as though he was dumb, leaving raph speechless

"And I know you liked it otherwise you wouldn't be out here all alone trying to convince yourself that you hate me" he added

"It was a stupid mistake, ok" raph pouted

"But you like me" there's the button pushing

"No...Maybe...listen your in the foot so even if I did like you, which I don't, there could be nothing between us" raph finished triumphantly believing his argument to be the better one

"Who made that rule up besides who said anyone had to find out" this guy was mental and seriously messing with Raph's head

"If we get caught well both be in the worst kind of trouble" raph said as Leo stood up standing in front of him almost toe to toe

"No one will know" Leo retorted quietly

"Why are you so determined" raph gritted out

"why cant you get it through your thick skull that I like you" leo echoed Raph's tone, Raph's eyes widening immediately, his emerald eyes searching leos face for any signs of mockery like his sly grin, but his face remained deadly serious, raph stopped stone cold, the only things going around his head where the words 'leo likes me', Raph's moth fell slightly and his heart felt like it was going to explode. He brought his focus back the turtle wearing the pitch black bandana, not saying a word, leo brought his hand up to Raph's chin, tilting his head slightly as he stole a light kiss, not lasting nearly as long as the first, just a quick peck on the lips was enough to match Raph's burning face to his bandana, leo, whilst not quite as red, still had tinted cheeks and a small smile on his face.

Quickly pulling out a scrap of paper and scribbling down on it he handed it to raph,

"Message me if you change your mind, stop these awkward encounters" he chuckled before dashing off onto the rooftops leaving raph a confused, blushing wreck standing alone in the park.

* * *

Donnie finally emerged from his lab after a few hours of testing and experimenting with some chemicals, sat in the living room was mikey, unhealthily close to the TV as usual and he assumed raph was in his room as he certainly wasn't in here,

"Mikey do you have to sit so close to the TV" he complained, sitting on the couch and only being able to see his brother blocking the screen

"Sorry" mikey replied as he scooched back

"Do you think splinters ok, I mean we haven't really seen him apart from in training" Donnie randomly started, looking over to the dojo doors

"Donnie, you're worrying too much dude, splinters always meditating and stuff" came the calm reply from his brother, and maybe he was right Donnie had over reacted on some occasions, splinter was probably just meditating a lot lately, that would be it. On another note, raph suddenly sprinted through the room looking nothing more than a blur disappearing into his room and slamming the door, leaving both donnie and mikey to look quizzically at each other,

"He was out?" Donnie questioned, quite shocked

"Apparently" mikey replied like he hadn't a clue raph had left

"You have been sitting here watching that dumb show since you left my lab, how could you not notice" Donnie asked in a way that basically said 'you're an idiot, mikey'

"It was a good episode" mikey whimpered twiddling his fingers innocently, as Donnie face-palmed.

Raph leaned against his door breathing heavily, his face still flushed slightly pink, was this how donnie felt about April, if so raph now understood why donnie always acted the way he did around her for some reason all rational though flew out of the window and you could either stay silent or make a fool of yourself, all things aside raph was really starting to like being around leo, a lot, he enjoyed the empty threats and teases they passed back and forth, it was the kind of thing he couldn't have with his brothers unless they where arguing. Lets not forget the fact that leo likes him, as in loves him likes him, he looked down at the crumpled scrap of paper in his hand with a list of numbers scrawled on, raph just looked at the scrap, analysing it carefully before internally concluding that he no longer cared that leo was foot and supposedly bad, he had seen enough of Aprils cheesy romance films to know that he should stop trying to deny his feelings towards leo, so ignoring the part of him that was warning him it wouldn't end well, he punched the numbers into his t-cell and saving the contact, today was good day raph thought to himself as he flopped onto his bed and just lay looking at the ceiling.

* * *

Leo had gotten back minutes before karai and shredder, he watched silently as they carried a small box to stockman's lab, with nothing better to do Leo had headed back to his room. He sat reading a book he had read hundreds of times before, the main character was falling to his doom but he would get saved by his amazing sidekick. The dark room slowly lit up as light from the hall outside shone in,

"Do anything fun while we where gone" his sister leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed

"Nope, same old same old" he lied smoothly

"Well how would you like to be dominated on Mario cart" she challenged, entering the room slightly, Leo chuckled

"well see who's beating who when we get started" leo chucked aside his book and handed karai a controller, the two laughed and joked as they battled around the track, fighting for first place, shoving each other and using power-ups, alas karai did win leo not far behind in third place, they didn't care much, just continued laughing as karai danced her victory dance, they had a few more rounds before the need for sleep kicked in

"Well night bro" she said with a huge smile on her face as she disappeared around the door.

Yet again Leo was alone, laying, just thinking about today, his phone vibrated loudly on the wooden side table, he grabbed it quickly to find a message from an unknown number

'hi' was all it said, leo smiling happily as he knew fine well who it was, they continued to pass messages back and forth through the night, until they had both all but passed out from exhaustion

* * *

The dojo doors where open, but only ajar, the rest of the lair deserted. Behind the dojo doors raph was facing against mikey, this was the only time he got to pound on his little brother without getting into trouble, donnie sat next to splinter at the tree, as there was only three of them, they had to take turns facing against one another,

"Master splinter" Donnie looked to his sensei beside him,

"Yes my son" he urged politely

"Is everything ok, just we haven't seen much of you lately" Donnie had tried to accept mikey's explanation but he just felt like something was off about there sensei, who laughed lightly

"Donatello, you have no reason to worry, I am currently trying to find a way to do something, I will tell you more later" he worded his sentence very carefully taking time to chose his words, donnie reluctantly accepted the answer turning back to watch his brothers fighting, raph seemed in an unusually good mood, ignoring and brushing off all of mikey's annoying comments, what was going on with this family, raph was sneaking out, sensei was acting a bit off, mikey was...mikey, but whatever was happening it started when leonardo popped up and donnie was going to find out what was happening.

Training finished the team dispersed about the lair, April had came over and was in the lab with donnie, mikey was messing in the kitchen with that strange pet of his making some kind of food, leaving raph yet again with nothing to do but relax on the couch, when a thought entered his head, he reached for his cell on his belt and scrolled to the most recent addition on his contact list,

'Somehow you are the only person I can talk to right now -R' he started, the phone stayed quiet for a minute or two before he got a reply

'Your family is never around -L" came the eventual reply

'Well there's mikey but that's a lost cause -R'

'I don't think you're giving him enough credit -L'

'I don't think you know my brother -R'

'Enlighten me -L'

'He's putting ice cream on pizza -R'

'You may have a point -L'

'Yea, what are you doing -R'

'I'm falling asleep in a meeting on how we will eliminate you -L'

'Sounds fun -R'

'Exhilarating, what about you -L'

'Laying on a couch - R'

'This meeting ends in 30 minutes, care to join me for lunch -L'

'How are we going to get lunch -R'

'I have connections, yes or no -L'

There was a pause as raph thought, was there anything better to do he pondered looking to mikey who was adding more strange foods to his 'ultimate pizza'

'Fine -R'

'Good, meet me at the bakery on gordan st, 30min -L'

Raph slid the phone in his belt and sat up, from his position he could just see donnie showing April some weird diagram, it was at this point raph started pondering how his brothers would react if they found out, he hadn't put much thought into it before, thanks to something else occupying his mind, nonetheless, now the more he thought about it the more the unease and doubt crept back into his body, what if they hated him, what if they got hurt because of him, was raph really just making one mistake after another not taking leo out. His head spun with worries and mixed feelings, he had half an hour before leo would expect him at the bakery, maybe he shouldn't go, just delete the number and try to forget this happened, if only it was that easy.

He managed to waste the time that he had doing random things around the lair eventually slinking out, April had left 10 minutes before raph, so it was no surprise that donnie followed him out of the lair determined to know why his brother was acting strangely. Upon arriving at the roof raph was rather surprised to see leo already standing there in a rather unusual attire the black tape and shining metal plates where gone and replaced with dark grey knee and elbow guards, the foot symbol only just visible, the heavily equipped belt had been down graded holding only a medium dagger and some shuriken, his mask stayed however, perfectly contrasting his bold blue eyes.

"well this is different" raph motioned up and down with his hand at leos new outfit

"you didn't think I wore that bulky gear all the time did you" he asked placing his hands on his hips

"I don't think about you at all" raph pathetically tried to protest

"sure you don't, now what do you want to eat" leo brushed off, raph sighed, he wasn't used to someone knowing how he felt, often he would play the tough guy around his brothers and they would just agree with his angry outbursts, god forbid leo ever do such a thing

"pizza's always been a favourite" he shrugged

"then lets go" leo lead raph to a rather sketchy area, it somehow seemed darker here as clouds loomed and decrepit buildings closed in. They went down a few alley ways before coming to a stop at a small place with a sign that flickered dimly hanging loosely above the door, raph looked sceptically at his escort then again what was he expecting, 5 star cuisine, he continued to follow leo into the building, they talked to a rather unusual man with more hair on his chin than his head and quite frankly looked like a crack addict, mikey's unusual concoction may have been a safer idea. They ordered the food and quickly evacuated the premises and went to sit on a nearby roof, and after much convincing raph hesitantly started eating, to his surprise it wasn't bad, despite there location this was, ok, nothing to worry about except leo turning out to be the evil traitor he should be and stabbing him, glancing over, said 'evil traitor' was trying desperately to eat the never ending string of cheese, raph couldn't help snigger at leos distress, he scowled, a long line of cheese connecting his mouth to the slice, the soft sniggers evolved into barks of laughter as the two sat on the roof In hysterics

"what's so funny" leo gasped through laughs getting no reply, just more laughing, they where eventually cut short by many blasts causing them to dart behind a vent, they had been completely oblivious to the fact that there loud laughing had alerted nearby kraang, there where a few but nothing that couldn't be handled,

"on the count of three we pounce em" raph said over the unrelenting gun fire, leo nodding in agreement drawing the dagger from his belt,

"one...two...THREE" he yelled as they leaped from behind the vent, there where only ten of them, leo taking the right, raph taking the left. They collaborated well as a duo leos blade slicing through circuits and servos, raph punching and stabbing kraang, dismembering certain limbs and sending them flying In all directions, one in particular went towards leo who promptly kicked it, his foot impacting the metal chin beheading the droid that crumpled to the ground. They looked at the discarded kraang bodies, broken and torn up around them, raph had left nothing but scraps, mechanical limbs lay scattered about the roof top, leo on the other hand had been more graceful In the dispatching of his enemy using clean precise cuts doing just as much damage as if he had both his katanas,

"these kraang are quite entertaining" leo thought out loud provoking a 'tisk' from raph

"gonna date them to" he scowled

"no, they break too easily, you're far better" leo said flirtatiously, clearly loving how much he was able to mess with raph, get him out of character

"gee thanks" raph murmured taking what was probably a compliment, mentally face palming at what he had referred to there outing as (a date if it isn't obvious)

"I better go, otherwise my brothers will start worryin" he said looking over his shoulder to the more populated part of the city, when he turned back around leo was alarmingly close to his face he couldn't step back or he'd fall from the building, raph felt his heart starting to pound and it took every strand of self control he had to not kiss the ninja right then, get the adrenalin rush and good feeling, taste the sweet taste from before, but he refused to let leo know just how much he had affected him

"until next time" leo purred softly grinning at raph then dashing off, leaving raph to release a breath he didn't know he had been holding as he watched the green shape slowly disappearing into the distance, he heard footsteps behind him yet as raph turned around and pointed a sai at the sneaker-upper he found himself looking at the unflinching, rather angry, face of his brother.

"d-donnie" he stuttered dropping his sai letting it hit the floor with a clang

"this is why you've been sneaking out!" he said through gritted teeth, raph had never seen donnie so mad, his fists where balled up so tight they shook slightly his body leaking rage

"I can explain" raph tried timidly to calm his younger brother, it worked slightly, donnie wasn't one for keeping an angry temper

"it better be good" he warned crossing his arms glaring at the red clad turtle who sighed, at first he considered lying, but donnie was too smart for that and raph knew he couldn't hide this forever.

"...and I think I might have feelin's for him" he finished after a long explanation, donnies look had turned sympathetic towards his brother

"raph, you know he doesn't care, he'll stab you in the back, hes foot" donnie placed his hand on Raph's shoulder looking down at his confused brother, obviously very confused and upset

"I keep trying to tell myself that but these dumb feelings seem to just take over" raph cried glaring at donnie "donnie, ya cant tell nobody" he trued to warn but came out as more of a plea, donnie took pitty

"fine, but when things go downhill ill tell if you don't" they agreed on this and made there way home

"cant believe you kissed him" donnie randomly exclaimed, raph just grumbled incoherently.

* * *

Two bowls of steaming hot noodles where placed on the table, karai's noodles where always a treat, father never joined them for lunch, he was always to busy, always, the main reason leo and karai where so close relying and caring for each other, there was a time when they told each other everything, no secrets, although now leo felt like he was betraying his sister by hiding something so big from her, but he couldn't help it if he felt the way he did for raph, from karai's description raph was meant to be short tempered, hot headed and quite aggressive, yet it would seen that leo had found a side to raph that not even raph knew about. It couldn't be said that leo didn't like the small bursts of rage, that added a fire to his sharp, green eyes, and details that defined the small features of his face, a face he could think about all day if he wished, it was strange how he was drawn to raph like he was though he wasn't going to question it, he liked these feelings, embraced them, and couldn't wait to see raph again,

"you feeling ok, haven't touched your noodles" karai's gentle voice snapped him away from his thoughts,

"yea I'm fine, just thinking" he came up with looking up from the bowl

"thinking about whoever you where messaging this morning?" she questioned

"what" leo asked feeling as though he had been left behind in the conversation, how did she know, they had been at opposite ends of the table

"so I got thinking" that was never good "maybe he met someone, then you left after the meeting in quite a hurry, like you where going some where" she hinted a smug look on her face

"wha...i...uh" leo seemed incapable of forming a coherent sentence

"don't worry, I wont tell father" she lowered her voice and then silently went back to her noodles leaving leo baffled, he guessed he should just be grateful she didn't know 'who' he was meeting, he let out a breath and started on his noodles.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N-I hope I haven't over done it by making the kiss scene the way I did, just let me know if I need to turn it down a notch, k, coo, thanks_ _._

Raph groggily woke up, his head was throbbing, he cleared his head and looked around, it felt like something was beneath him, looking down raph found himself looking upon the unconscious form of leonardo, the sight of the other turtle shocked him slightly, raph tried sitting up but found his head smacking off a roof, he was in a cage, a very small cage, with leo, in what looked to be a kraang lab, this was just great, raph inwardly sighed. He manoeuvred himself and Leo into better positions best he could in the small space, eventually raph sighed how did this happen, he couldn't remember and his head hurt when he tried, it couldn't be any worse.

 _Earlier that night_

Night fell upon the vast cityscape of New York, the golden, orange sky turning an endless, star-speckled black, the moon greatly contrasting the inky background, dimly illuminating the rooftops. Three turtles dashed about the city, scouring around for signs of trouble, it had been a few days since leo had shown his face, in fact the only contact raph had had with leo since there last encounter was the few texts they had sent back and forth, not to mention the fact that donnie hadn't gotten off his case about his feelings towards leo, though it was more warnings rather than teases, it also appeared that so far he seemed to have kept his promise and not told anyone, or maybe he had and raph just didn't know yet, no matter it didn't change the fact that, raph kinda missed leo but hadn't wanted to come off as needy by asking for a meet up, right now that didn't matter he had to focus on the task at hand. They came to a stop at a building with a rather large billboard,

"fancy meeting you here" the voice sounded from atop the billboard, the three brothers turned to face it, karai sat perched high up, leo stood at the edge to her left and many foot ninjas where scattered around the place. Raph's heart skipped a beat, sure these weren't the best circumstances to meet in but still at least he got to see him,

"but lets skip the pleasantries" and evil smirk crept onto her face, she drew her sword then pounced on mikey, soon it was a grand battle mikey holding off karai and many other foot, raph had leo and his few soldiers donnie elected to help mikey as leo hadn't as many soldiers with him and mikey was struggling, a lot, he rushed over batting a few foot away, they fought back to back, mikey spun his nunchucks beating most of the foot coming his way, one in particular swung at him, he quickly swung one end of his weapon at the oncoming fist, as it wrapped around mikey pulled slamming the soldier to the floor, there where still some approaching he kicked one to his left firmly in the chest making him stumble back onto his team mates, donnie on the other hand was having a bit more trouble dealing with karai and her foot soldiers, katanas and fists flying at him, donnie only just blocking them with his staff, whacking certain people and tripping them, karai was a bit harder to hit, weaving out of the way like a snake, one of donnies swings went over her head, and as he brought the wooden staff back she grabbed a tight hold of it and used the one hand to support herself as she hopped over it, kicking donnie in the face as she went over instantly bringing her katana down when she landed donnie only just able to block the attack, he pushed up hard on the katana being forced down on him, giving him a slight opening allowing him to jab his staff into karai's stomach, she staggered back clutching her stomach then receiving a wooden stick to the face.

Raph was now facing only leo, the foot he had with him weren't exactly challenging, also leo may or may not have helped him out just a bit, but now it was just one on one, leos katanas locked into Raph's sai's,

"where have you been hiding" he asked quietly, pushing the other turtle away

"I cant come and see you every night, did you miss me" he asked sliding past raph and kicking him in the shell, raph didn't answer, pulling himself off the ground and quickly blocking the katana heading for his face

"will you meet me back here in an hour" leo looked at raph with a sad smile and of course raph wasn't going to refuse, but the look on leos face right then made the wait to see him so worth it

"fine" he tried to sound nonchalant but raph was fairly sure leo saw through the mask, glancing over mikey and donnie where just about done, turning his eyes back to his opponent leo had let his guard drop, almost intentionally asking to be kicked, so without further warning raph charged jumping and using both feet to launch leo off the roof, going all king leonidas on him wasn't the plan but raph hadn't realised how close they where to the edge of the building,

Karai got to her feet and scowled at raph before jumping off the roof and leaving with her brother, the three turtles standing on the roof slightly confused and in Raph's case very exited for an hour from now.

* * *

"well that was a disaster" karai exclaimed when they where far from the turtles

"at least we got what we needed before they got there" leo pulled a small metal box from one of the pouches on his belt

"the specialised mutagen, better get this back to father" agreeing they darted to the church as fast as they could, while raph and his brothers continued there patrol, raph especially exited for one hour to pass.

* * *

Raph finished up patrol and leo dropped off the mutagen with karai, they where now racing towards the roof, they both came to a skidding halt getting there at about the same time, they stopped, staring at one another in and extended silence,

"you, my feisty friend, have one powerful kick" leo started the conversation rubbing his upper plastron, the compliment was taken without a word, just a smug huff

"I never did find out if you missed me" he tried to pull words from raph again, this time to a bit more avail

"I may have, I never found out where you went" he bounced back only vaguely answering the initial question

"I had to help stockman with some dumb experiments" Leo rolled his eyes

"oh that's all, I was starting to think you didn't like me anymore" he remarked sarcastically

"It's a bit difficult to love you when you seem to hate me" raph widened his eyes, leo thought raph hated him, after all the things that had been said and done, this flirtatious bastard thought he hated him. Raph stared at leo in a way that sent shivers down his spine, as though he believed if he looked hard enough he could burn a hole through the foot ninja, his fists were clenched hard by his sides, simply knowing the sheer strength in those hands was enough to terrify any sane person.

Randomly raph shot forward to Leo forcefully pushing him back into a broken pipe which drenched them in an icy cold deluge, Leo inhaled sharply at the sudden events, absolutely drenched and freezing cold, raph threw him against a nearby wall quickly and kissed him, it was so sudden and intense, it was like a cauldron of emotions, It burned and froze all at the same time, the water so cold and his mouth so hot, it was heaven and hell all at once. Raph had a firm grip on the edge of Leo's plastron with one hand, the other holding his waist area tugging on his belt slightly, loosing himself in the sensation, Leo rested his hand on the taut shoulder in front of him, slowly wrapping his arms around Raph's neck in an attempt to stop himself crumpling to the ground, this was overwhelming, his heart was pounding ready to burst, raph only kissed harder, the hand from his waist had snaked its way up and was now entwining itself in the dark tails of his bandana. Raph's mouth was fierce against Leo's, the only response he could manage was a strangled groan, he couldn't take this, raph was pulling away the strings holding him together.

Then like an alarm waking him from a dream, the unmistakable sound of an unsheathing weapon broke through the air, then a cold spike dug in just under his jaw as they broke apart, Leo unhooked his hands from around Raph's neck, pinning them to the wall near his dagger.

"I should just end you" he growled in Leo's ear tugging on the bandana tails arching his head up, keeping Leo pinned to the wall.

"stop you from hurting my family like you're destined to do" Leo just stayed silent, they stood in statue like stillness until eventually the sai left the exposed neck and raph sauntered to the middle of the roof,

"but I like you, a lot, I just aint good at showing feelings alright" he yelled angrily, re-sheathing his sai, he didn't know what It was about Leo but that turtle filled a hole in raph, a void that had been there all his life, leonardo made him feel...whole in a way

"I'm a bit lost for words here" Leo chuckled nervously, looking at raph with disbelief

Raph was about to speak when a small silver grenade like device was thrown between the two, it beeped loudly before releasing a strange purple gas. The duo back away but it was too late they fell to the ground coughing and wheezing until everything went black.

 _Back in the cage_

The memories flooded back, how could he have forgotten all that, he looked over to the still insentient Leo, only now noticing the extreme lack of weaponry on both him and his cell mate, the suspended cage they where in rocked rhythmically back and forth. It was tempting to try kicking his comatose like friend in an attempt to wake him but decided that even if he did wake him they would still be trapped in a cage with no way out so why not let him sleep, Raph leaned his shell against the cold metal bars letting out a defeated sigh, hopefully a way out would appear soon.

* * *

Donnie knew it wouldn't end well, anything involving the foot never ended well and raph had managed to tangle himself in the middle of everything with that Leo, this whole thing was just a time bomb waiting to blow up. Donnie let out an agitated sigh, raph had snuck out yet again and it was all to obvious why, he swore that if that bastard so much as thought about betraying raph, well he probably couldn't do much but he could sure as hell get very mad about it and gloat to raph about how right he had been, in spite of how mad he was raph wasn't entirely to blame, donnie knew very well how it felt to care for someone so much it was almost unfathomable, though it didn't change the fact that raph was making a terrible mistake, reality would soon rear its ugly face and hit him hard and the deadly tango he was dancing with this enemy would crumble, having devastating effects on everyone on both affiliated sides of the forbidden romance. Hours passed and raph hadn't returned, Donnie was beginning worry, he tried calling, no answer.

"Surly Miss O'Neil is not awake at this hour" donnie lurched forward at the voice suddenly behind him

"Sensei...hi" was all he could produce

"Usually when you stay up this late you are concealed in your lab" splinter walked around the couch, standing before his son, the tone of his voice when he spoke suggested he expected donnie to explain the situation but Donnie couldn't think of a single excuse not that splinter would fall for any lies if he told them.

"its Raph, he's gotten himself caught up with that foot ninja leonardo, he left a while ago but still isn't back and he's not answering his cell" Donnie blew his top like a shook up bottle of pop, blaring the information in a panicked explanation.

"so, what should you do" Donnie strained his mind, what should he do, what could he do, the best thing to do would be to find Raph, how could he do that,

"I should track his phone then go investigate the scene" the answer seemed to have been floating in front of his face the whole time, the worry on his mind was distracting him

"yes and possibly get yourself in trouble too" splinter agreed sarcastically, he could just tell donnie what he should do, but no, that would actually be easy, god forbid.

"uh, I should take Mikey as backup" his voice held unease as he questioned his own words, splinter simply smiled and walked off, right then, to the lab.

* * *

"Where are we going again" Mikey yawned

"to find Raph" they where following the red bleep on Donnies phone which lead them straight to the TCRI building. Moving like shadows throughout the building Donnie and Mikey searched pretty much the entire base, eventually stumbling on a large oval like room, half a dozen kraang scattered about the place doing various tasks while dangling in the centre of the room was Raph and Leo in a rather claustrophobic cage. Motioning to Mikey, they slowly started taking out the kraang like two assassins managing to eliminate all the enemies in the room without raising the alarm.

"finally" Leo sighed, as slowly the cage was lowered and unlocked

"well you're welcome" Mikey scowled his voice full of sass

They gathered their weapons and fled from the scene, not getting far however, karai stood a building across from them, the look on her face was the definition of anger the look on Leo's was that of a dog who knew he had done wrong, no one dared breathe a word, eventually karai motioned her head as a way of saying *come on* then dashed off over the rooftops followed by Leo,

"ohhh he's in trouble" Mikey chuckled,

"shut up Mikey" Donnie and Raph said in unison

* * *

"karai, karai please wait" Leo called helplessly as he tried to catch up to his sister who had bolted across the rooftops faster than a fat kid to a candy store,

"I don't want to hear it Leo" she yelled back, not stopping

"they just helped me get out" he tried reasoning with her, she stopped suddenly

"do I look stupid to you" she asked offended "Leo I'm not an idiot, I can put two and two together, you've been sneaking out to see Raph, I get it" it was obvious she was angry,

"you're not going to tell father are you" Leo hated the fear in his voice but it couldn't be helped, if shredder found out it was all over. Karai paused, her frown didn't lessen but her voice seemed more sincere than before,

"no, but I thought we where closer than this, I just cant believe you would hide something this big from me," she sounded hurt and betrayed and she had every right to be, heck even Leo would be mad at Leo right now

"I just thought you would hate me" he said, his voice barely audible as he stared glumly at the ground. Karai dropped her mask (metaphorical mask), letting out a sigh, she wasn't all that good at these heart to hearts, they weren't her style, but Leo, despite being younger had always looked out for her like an older brother, it hurt to see him like this, she placed a hand on his shoulder and

"Leo right now I don't know what to think, there's too much going around in my head to come to a clear conclusion, sure I might be furious at your stupidity but I trust that you have your reasons, I could never hate you little bro" Leo looked up, the tiniest smile crept onto his face, the last time karai had spoke like that was when they where ten and shredder had finally told them what happened to their mother.

"just don't make me regret trusting you, don't be a traitor" she practically begged as she made her way to the other edge of the roof then sprinted off.

* * *

They got back to find splinter waiting for them,

"Raphael where have you been" he asked worried, Donnie looked at Raph with a glare and he knew that if he didn't tell splinter about what was going on Donnie would, and that's not something he wanted to happen.


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N-This chapter is more talk less action but hopefuly there will be some more next chapter also I just want to say a huge thanks to all my awesome readers and reviewers, id also like to say im going to try to improve my grammar, punctuation ect... but no promises (sorry maizy)_

they stood at the entrance of the lair, splinter looking at raph waiting for his reply. Raph could hear his heart in his ears, how much could he bend the truth before splinter would notice he was lying, would donnie tell him anyway, there was too many questions and no answers, but raph had to decide what to do and now

"ive been getting...close with leonardo" was what he managed to come up with, he could feel mikeys grin behind him

"define close" splinter came down to his sons level looking him dead in the eye, raph turned helplessly to donnie for something anything, all he got Was an encouraging nod, turning back to his sensei

"ya know, kissen and stuff" he mumbled refusing to meet the piercing gaze before him

"WHAT, are you trying to get yourself killed!" he yelled

"no, sensei you don't understand he's not like other foot" raph tried to reason with his enraged sensei, you could practically see the anger seeping from his body

"no, you do not understand, his mind had been poisoned by the shredders, the only thing he wants is to get rid of you!"

"I DON'T CARE, I love him and if that means im gonna end up with his sword through my face then FINE!" Raphs words sliced through the air, the anger slowly left splinter as he took many calming breaths,

"i believe there is something i should tell you, come, follow me"he sighed, leading them to the dojo where they sat in a semi-circle around the rat who knelt in front of the old tree that stood in the room

"as you know, when i lived in japan i had a family, a wife and daughter, who were both killed by shredder or so i thought, what you do not know is that when i left japan and came here i escaped shredder in the sewers, it was at this time i witnessed him taking a small child like creature from amongst the sewage" his words sunk deep into the minds of the three teens

"sensei, you're not trying to say what i think you are, are you" donnie asked seeming already aware of where the story was heading

"not only is leonardo your brother, karai is your sister" the words hit like wrecking-balls, the brothers in shock, raphs world seemed to shatter around him, brother, it should have been obvious how had raph not connected the pieces, he felt so stupid,he was snapped out of his thoughts by clicking fingers centimeters from his face

"you ok bro" mikey asked slowly, raph thought for a moment, his disorientation quickly turning to blood boiling rage

"im gonna kill that shred-head bastard"

* * *

Shredder slammed his fist on to the arm of his chair, the thunderous impact echoing through the room

"I don't care how it happened, I want to know why neither of you took the chance to eliminate them" he boomed, storming over

"there was a lot going on, we just wanted to escape the kraang safely" karai explained

"those aliens should be no trouble for the two of you, it disappoints me that after what those turtle freaks did to shen, neither of you seize the opportunity to dispose of them"

"father I thought It was the rat who..." Leo didn't get to finish, his sentence cut short by the slightly muffled voice of his father

"enough, after what they have done to this family I thought you would know better than to show them any form of mercy, such as letting them go to save your own skins" he spat down at the two knelt teens

"but father we could have been killed" karai exclaimed, shocked, shredder just avoided the subject allowing karai to leave but insisting he needed a private talk with leonardo, once she was gone he started talking quietly to the turtle, danger lurking in his voice.

"a reliable source tells me you have been meeting one of the turtles" he knelt down to leo's level as he spoke

"what n-no I would never" he internally cursed for his stutter

"then what would you say it is my source saw"

"on my outings I often happen across one of them, we usually fight it out but he runs eventually, I've tried chasing him many times but he keeps slipping away" leo came up with the excuse on the spot and he begged his father wouldn't notice

"If I find out you are lying to me, I'll redefine your idea of pain, understand" leo felt the burn of the cold steel blades at his neck, as he nodded slowly before being dismissed.

He left his father and headed to his room, now foot soldiers aren't meant to show emotion, but in case it isn't obvious leo and karai don't care much for that rule, now however leo was embarrassed to admit he was close to tears, karai wouldn't speak to him, his own father seemed to want him dead, right now he just wanted to talk to someone, a comforting hug, nice words, anything. As if fate was listening to his thoughts, his phone buzzed, it was raph and he wanted to meet up, leo couldn't say no, even if raph punched him in the face at least leo would get to talk to someone, so before he could change his mind he bolted from the base and made his way to the location raph had given.

* * *

He stopped in the middle of the roof,

"Raphael!" leo called out, scanning the area

"right here" he emerged from the shadows as he approached Leo. They stood toe to toe gazing at one another, raph's eyes held all the confusion and rage bottled up inside him, leo's on the other hand looked worried and defeated. Hestitantly leo brought his head closer to raph, pulling back slightly to see if he would return the gesture, catching on raph edged his face closer until their lips met, if only for a few glorious seconds, the tender exchange took away the problems of the world momentarily, reminding them why they kept risking everything they loved for one another. Pulling back raph stares intensely at the gritty floor below but leo just wanted a little more to take away the hurt of today, he tilted raphs head enough to gently peck at his lips, starting with feather light kisses barely touching the rough, chapped lips of the red clad turtle, but he slowly found his confidence, the kisses growing more fierce and passionate every time as they allowed their hands to explore each other, the experience was glorious just as it had been the previous times, the presence of another in his mouth was mesmerizing but raph knew it wasn't right, doing his best to drag away he tried to speak

"no...we can't...stop" he managed in panted breaths between the ardent kisses, thankfully leo listened, mirroring raphs action and looking at the flustered turtle

"what's wrong" he asked worried slightly

"I just learned something and it kinda changes things" raph vaguely explained

"what on earth could you have learned that changes what you already think about me" leo smirked, laughing slightly at the outrageous statement

"if i told you, you wouldn't believe me" raph made his way over to an air vent, leaning on it folding his arms

"try me" leonardo challenged, raph just looked up and sighed

"you're my brother and karai's my sister" the sentence was said without any emotion, as if raph himself didn't believe it,leo stood looking unamused

"you're right, I don't believe you" he turned away from raph and sat near the water tank,

"hey, you ok"

"no im not ok the whole world is against me" he cried looking up, "karai hates me, my father hates me and now you're lying to get away from me" they stayed in silence, raph thought hard about what to say, he knew the simple, 'you've got it all wrong' wasn't going to cut it. He sat down next to leo

"life sucks alotta the time" was all his brain came up with, go he wished he was splinter right now, he always knew what to say. Raph found himself fiddling with the tails of leos bandana again, only just able to see the glowing blue eyes staring at him through the mask

"you dont make it easy" raph sighed

"you're one to talk" a small ghost smile dashed across leo's face as he turned to raph, this was like one of those cleshay movie moments when the lovers gaze longingly into one another's eyes before sharing the slow, sensual kiss, unfortunaltly before they could share said kiss a small glint caught the sapphire eye, it came from over raphs shoulder only just reflecting the moonlight from its position. It was only when he squinted did he see the barely visible foot symbol,leos eyes widened as he pushed past Raph, charging for the soldier as it darted from its hiding spot over the rooftops. Leo chased it as far as he could, Raph hot on his tail, alas the bot was fast, faster than him and eventually he lost it, the soldier disappearing over the roofs, leo falling to the ground wheezing as his legs refused to obey him any longer forcing him to kneel helplessly on the floor, allowing the salty tears to flow down his cheeks. His life was over and leo had never felt so stupid, now he was going to die for his carelessness.

"should we worry about that" raph asked after he caught up, pointing in the direction of the foot bot

"yes that is something we should worry about, I'm going to die isn't it obvious" he sobbed, thoroughly embarrassed to be seen in this state. Raph suddenly had an idea, sure it was a bit mean using leos despair against him but right now that hardly seemed like their biggest problem,

"you could stay with me, shredder can't get you then" he suggested trying his best to be reassuring to his obviously distressed friend

"and I don't hate the idea of seeing you a bit more" he added awkwardly, smiling wonkily at him,

"you would do that for me" he asked shocked, receiving a small nod, it was now that leo did something raph wasn't expecting, he jumped up and hugged him allowing a few tears to drip onto raphs shoulder, a strange experience for both of them

"thank you" the words were spoken so quietly raph wouldn't have heard them if the mouth that spoke them wasn't right next to his ear. They stood like that for about ten minutes until rain started and raph lead leo back to the base.

* * *

Shredder let out a furious roar, the foot soldier who had delivered the news hadn't lived long enough to share the information but shredder was kicking and cursing like bratty kid demanding sweets in a candy store. Karai after hearing the commotion had burst through the doors,

"father what's going on" she yelled over the commotion

"karai, from now on if you see your brother you are to destroy him" he pointed at her as he growled the command

"what...but father..." She tried to argue

"he is a traitor, and if you do not do as you are told I will treat you as one to" he warned, karai didn't say a word, she just scowled at her father then stormed from the room

"dammit leo...why" she ran to her room, feeling like a part of her had been painfully ripped out.

* * *

They snuck into the lair, at this time even donnie was out, snoring on his desk. They crept into raphs room, slowly sliding the door closed,

"I think I might be able to rustle up some spare bed stuff" raph whispered

"you don't have to"

"its fine, ill sneak into don's lab, won't be a minute" raph grinned as he slid out the door, leaving leo alone. When he returned with a bed sheet and pillow leo was sat on the bed his armor and everything else discarded in the corner of the room.

"that was more than a minute" was the welcome raph got upon entry as he threw the bedding on the ground, before he joined leo , sitting next to him on the bed

"raphael, do you still love me, or has your information changed your mind" leo asked, looking at the variety of posters on raphs wall,

"right now I don't know, there's just a lot going on" raph commented, twiddling his thumbs and glancing at the unarmoured turtle. They clambered into their respective beds but neither of them slept a wink, raph too worried about leo while leo was concerned for karai and what shredder would do to him


	7. Chapter 7

April strolled into the lair, the unsettling silence that greeted her sent shivers through her body, it was unnerving, the only sound was that of light taps on a counter, Donnie sat in the kitchen drumming his fingers on the surface that he sat at, drinking his early morning coffee.

"mornin don" she chipperly called, drawing donnies eyes from his drink, his sleepy expression vanishing immediately, a beaming smile taking over his face

"April, hi" he gushed happily, she joined him at the table and they happily exchanged conversation until Mikey burst in, much to Donnie's dismay. They all chilled in the kitchen Mikey making breakfast, April and Donnie enjoying coffee, yet as time passed the distinct lack of Raph in the room was becoming a cause for concern.

"he's usually out way sooner than this... right?" Donnie asked looking wearily at his brothers door, April and Mikey sharing equally concerned faces

"what if he slipped out, and the foot got him" April summed rather panicked, they sat silently looking at the door, pondering what to do, Mikey's breakfast burning on the stove.

Disregarding Mikey's panicked screams, Donnie made for the door, knocking lightly on it, he got no response so he tried again, a bit harder this time

"Raph?" He called in, still greeted with silence he looked back over to the kitchen, its occupants only shrugged, releasing an agitated sigh he clasped the door handle firmly and forced it open, honestly he shouldn't have been surprised yet he couldn't help but sigh at the sight of a certain foot soldier on the floor.

April and Mikey appeared next to him, April's jaw dropped as she looked in utter disbelief at the scene before her, Mikey however was evily chuckling as he slipped into the room crouching next to the sleeping foot soldier.

"Mikey!" Donnie yelled in a whisper, Mikey completely ignorant to his warning however,

"relax D" he assured, pulling out a marker, while it would have been amusing to let Mikey doodle on Leonardos face, Donnie had a feeling he wouldn't live long enough to laugh about it later, so, dragging Mikey out of the room, Donnie quietly closed the door and shooed him away,

"wait you're just gonna leave that foot guy in there?" April cried, pointing to the now closed door, Donnie lay his hand on her shoulder

"let me fill you in" he said as he lead her to the lab.

* * *

After what seemed like forever, Raph and Leo had fallen asleep, night terrors plagued leos mind, haunting situations playing over and over, some not even possible. Raph was constantly awoken by the internal conflict of new information battling for his attention disrupting his sleep, however he used these waking moments to his advantage, letting his eyes fall to the sleeping turtle on the floor, while sleeping, Leo seemed at peace, like all his problems were gone and his mask had fallen. Raph sighed, he knew they were brothers but not a single part of him felt like that was the case, as much as he wanted to he just couldn't bring himself to think of this person as family, just someone who's personality he found entertaining and face he found attractive

'screw it' he thought, so what if the humans thought this was wrong, they weren't human and didn't have to abide by their ways of thinking, besides they had been pet shop turtles, the chance of them being biologically related was slim to non, a small smirk on his face, Raph fell easily back asleep, happy with his new way of thinking.

Alas he was yet again awoken, not by thoughts but by his door closing, looking down Leo was still sleeping, his brothers must have checked in on him, oh well, looking to his nightstand his alarm clock read noon, training started soon so, leaving Leo alone, he left for the dojo.

* * *

As Raph left Leo's eyes shot open, he had woken up when that Mikey had started prodding his face, never had he wanted to punch someone so badly, but he was outnumbered and it probably wouldn't have went down well with the people who already hated him. He got up, geared up, and made for the door, but stopped, where would he go, home wasn't an option and the city didn't seem safe. Then again did he really want to leave, sighing he slowly opened the door, the distant sound of fighting echoed through the room. Leo couldn't stop his jaw dropping, for being in a sewer this place looked... homey, more so than anything he was used to. Against himself, he sauntered about the room, letting his hand bush against the couch and walls, the sight, the smell, the feel, it was nice. A smile crept on his face as his eyes danced over the details of the room, falling on the dojo panels. Stalking over he crouched behind it, through a crack he saw four teens fighting one another, much like how he and karai used to. However Leo let his attention float to one turtle in particular, his heartbeat quickened slightly as he gazed mindlessly at Raph who sparred against his lankey, gaptooth brother. What Raph lacked in elegance he more than made up for in brute strength, seeing that power sent his heart wild, feeling that power in battle however was truly exhilarating. For awhile he sat googly eyed like a school girl, watching as the sweat shimmered in the light, yet he was broken from his trance by a thunderous shout

"Hajime!" The four teens stopped and knelt in front of a rat whom he had missed until now

"you have all improved, however Raphael I wish you would tell me when you have guests" he said sounding agitated, the four looked between each other, the rat just turned straight to Leo

"well, are you just going to crouch there or will you come and join us?" Leo narrowed his eyes as he rose and stepped in keeping eye contact with this... this thing until he was stood next to the kneeling row of teens.

"you must be Leonardo" he inquired raising an eyebrow

"and you must be the murdering rat master, pleasure to make your acquaintance" leo spat clinically refraining from grinning at the agitated growls from beside him

"ah yes I am well aware of the lies shredder has been feeding you and karai" the foot soldier just scoffed

"oh and I'm supposed to believe this bullshit about being related to these three" emphasizing that the idea sounded totally ludacris to him

"if it is so far fetched the allow me to explain" splinter calmy stood up

"haha how bout no" Leo dismissed, deciding to take his leave and made for the door, yet before he could make it out he was stopped

"do you like wagers" splinter asked, sapphire eyes glinted with the excitement of a challenge

"go on" he urged, looking over his shoulder slightly

"we spar, hand to hand, right now, if I win, you stay and listen, hopefully you will see past shredders deceit"

"and if I win?" Leo slowly reentered the room

"then you can leave thinking what you want and gloating that you beat someone shredder could not" that, that was what he needed, that would get him back in fathers good books, he could bring father here, his life could return to normal, all he had to do was beat up some senile old man.

"alright" he agreed

Dumping out his weapons before he stood opposite splinter, the four teens scattered to the side to watch the fight. Leo eyed up his opponent, looking he realized this may have been a mistake as he had no clue how he would take down such a foe. Clearly he was going to have to make the first move, so dashing forward he went straight for the gut, splinter however caught his fist and spinning him round kicked him in the shell sending him to the ground, Leo only just pushing himself out of the way in time to dodge a foot aimed for his head, yet only to be slapped by the tail that came out of nowhere. Scrambling to his feet, Leo again dashed towards the rat, power sliding under a fist, he skidded to a halt and lunged at his unprepared target, returning the kick from earlier and sent splinter tumbling to the ground, all while cheers and chuckles sounded form their 'audience'. Hurrying toward Spinter, ready to make a finishing blow, Leo was about to strike when suddenly the rat moved, he darted to leos side, awkwardly twisting his arm behind his shell and shoving him to the floor, a small cry escaping him as his chin collided with hard concrete, he was pinned and every time he tried to squirm out of it the gip only tightened, honestly he didn't know if this guy would go so far as to break his arm but Leo didn't really want to risk being indisposed right now, reluctantly he tapped out.

"alright enough already" he surrendered, instantly the weight was gone and Leo found himself able to sit up and rub his shoulder, splinter sat in front of him just as calm as before, Leo glared up "well lets get this over with" his tone indicating how pissed he was to have lost.

Looking quite surprised yet pleased, splinter began to tell the tale of what happened years ago, reminiscing every word as he spoke wholeheartedly about the events that transpired, what caught leos attention wasn't just the tone or the emotion in his eyes when he spoke but the photograph that was handed to him, a family of three framed in timeless bliss, the picture itself was like that of karais only this one wasn't torn and showed a man, clearly the husband, yet he looked nothing like shredder, with or without hair, what's more this story fit together better than anything shredder had told him but it just couldn't be true, there was no way. He lay down the photo, remaining quiet Leo stood slowly and walked out of the dojo, leaving the weapons.

"Leo" Raph dashed out after him as the remaining occupants looked at one another.

* * *

Raph soon caught up with Leo at the turnstile as he slouched against it

"hey" Raph started awkwardly, not getting any response from the elder turtle, his ocean blue eyes seemed dull and lost, his demeanor seemed sad, it was as if the life had been sucked right out of him.

"aw come on we aint that bad" he joked in an attempt to lighten the mood

"that's not the Point" Leo looked coldly towards the other turtle, "I just.. It just can't be true, everything I've been taught, all this information I've grown up with, has my whole life really been a lie"

Raph desperately wanted to comfort Leo, he wasn't sure why but it hurt to see him like this, yet he couldn't begin to fathom how it felt to have everything you believe chucked out the window,

"um, well I can't tell you that isn't true, but uh.. Well you know, I'm here for you if you ever need to talk, or something" Raph said, stuttering and fumbling over his words, he really wasn't good at this

Leo couldn't help but chuckle lightly at Raph's attempt to console him

"you're adorable" he sighed, a forlong smile on his face as Raph turned as red as his bandana "I love you Raph, and even though you might not feel the same way anymore, you have to understand I will never see you as a brother" he choked out, gripping Raph's bulky shoulders lightly

Leo pulled their lips together gently for a kiss that felt full of sorrow yet needed, leo wanted to feel loved and take his mind off things, just for a moment, yet Raph pull them as close as he could, not letting go. If he couldn't use words to tell Leo just how he felt, he would make sure that the foot turtle knew that he was here for him another way. Eventually the need for oxygen tore them apart and warm, heavy breaths filled the air as dilated eyes gazed at one another,

"you're going, aren't you" it was more of a statement than a question

"I can't leave karai, from everything I've learned, nothing changes the fact that she is my sister"

"we could come up with a plan and all go for her together" Raph tried to reason, he knew going to the heart of the foot alone wasn't the best idea

"no, talking to her one on one is the best chance I have" Leo replied stubbornly, yet the fact Raph cared so much almost made him reconsider.

They pulled apart, Leo headed for the dojo to collect his weapons, Raph just stood, hoping, praying everything would be ok

"don't look so worried" Leo joked as he walked past

"are you kidden, you mean a lot to me ya know" he scolded at Leo's amusement

"didn't think you liked me like that" came the taunting response

"no, I was.. Conflicted with all the information ya know, you're still a sexy, flirtatious pain in my ass" Raph declared

"if that's your way of saying I love you too, then I'll take it" Leo chuckled backing away, "I'll see you when I get back" he ended in a more serious tone before dashing down the tunnel, out of view


End file.
